The Common Goal of Survival
by BlueLantern'sLight
Summary: Corporal Lawliet of the Training Corps has just been assigned a new squadron of fresh recruits. Almost none of them get along, and none of them respect the corporal's authority. But when Titans unexpectedly breach the wall and attack their training compound, they'll have to work together in order to survive - And to figure out the Titan-shifting traitor among them.
1. Prologue

Death, or at least the threat of it, is something quite marvellous, is it not? People staring fate in the face tend to act quite differently in comparison to those who live in a bubble of safe security. Enemies force through differences and become allies in the hopes that cooperation and safety in numbers will bring them through the darkness and, eventually to victory. In panicked last moments romances bloom, rising from the blood and the ashes in a small yet desperate act of hope, as many forget secrets when they believe the end is nigh.

In short, death can work miracles where safety cannot. And nine members of the Training Corps, along with their sweet-toothed corporal, were soon to experience this for themselves.

**Author's Note: None of my actual chapters will be as short as this, I promise. Vague prologues are difficult. _ Anyway, I promise not to abandon this story, and updates will never be more than two weeks apart. Also, big thanks to Tumblr's half-sassed for the story idea. ^_^**


	2. Chapter I - Untameable

"That's enough. I'm dismissing this session. Please return to your dorms. Now."

Corporal Lawliet had known that managing a fight training session with this year's Training Corps cadets would be difficult, but he hadn't expected to be forced to dismiss it this quickly. Five minutes and twenty-three seconds had to be the shortest lesson he'd ever supervised in his time as Corporal, and he'd been teaching for a number of years now - nine, to be exact, if you included his year as an assistant to the old teacher. In that time, he'd come across cadets with a whole spectrum of attitudes and personalities, but none of them, none of them at all, had been quite as bad to cope with as this current group.

Mello, Matt, Near, Beyond, Linda, Misa, Kiyomi, Teru, and Light: Nine names the Corporal wasn't likely to forget. Even logic suggested that they would get on better than they really did. Almost all of them disliked each other intensely, with almost no exceptions: Mello and Matt got on well, but Mello was a typical bully to a lot of people; Teru and Light also got on, but both were fuelled by justice to the point of near insanity; and everyone else just seemed to bicker. Misa was incredibly clingy towards Light, and often fought with Kiyomi over him, although Light seemed interested in neither of them. And Near was smart, yet vulnerable, leaving himself an open target to Mello's jealous torment. Lawliet had researched a little into his students' pasts and had suspected a reasonably poor compatibility between some of them, but the complete personality clash between all nine was just stunning.

However, the worst thing had to be that zero percent of them had any respect for Lawliet's authority whatsoever, which was currently being demonstrated by the fact that the five remaining cadets (who hadn't been sent to the nurse due to injury) were still at each other's throats. Mello was still standing, as was Matt, along with light, Beyond, and Teru. The planned training session would normally proceed as follows: Split into pairs and try to use basic techniques to knock your opponent to the ground, _without serious injury. _That idea had completely gone out the window though, and it had become a mass free-for-all. Misa and Kiyomi had been the first to get nasty with each other, and were both dismissed within the first ninety seconds. Linda was another two minutes later, having had two of the boys gang up on her. It was when the fourth cadet, Near, had to stop that the Corporal then decided to attempt to bring the session to a premature end. A small, somewhat malicious part of him wanted to not do it, and wanted to wait for every single one of them to injure one another, in order to teach them how stupid they were being. But he realised it would be unlikely to make much of a difference to their attitudes, so he sighed gruffly and stepped towards the group in his normal slouched position. And this time, his voice was a lot lower, and softer, which gave it that much more seriousness and threat.

"Has there ever, in any point of your lives, been one moment where you have ever had the common decency to respect your seniors?"

This, somewhat surprisingly, made the five pause mid-hit and turn to look at their commander.

"Heichou, we were merely following your instructions." It was Light who replied, sounding quite innocent, bitter, and proud all at the same time, if that was even possible.

"And at what point did I say that you could excessively hurt each other and turn organized training into an almost bloodbath?" Lawliet said in response, keeping up his soft tones in the hopes that they'd continue to be effective.

"These bastards provoked Light-kun. We were defending ourselves against our oppressors," Teru spoke this time, getting a growl in response from Mello and Beyond, who looked ready to strike again at any moment.

The Corporal noticed the building up violence, but his expression did not change. "I believed all five of you are at fault," he said simply. "You all broke my rules, which I clearly placed before you, and thus you are all to blame." He pulled a sugar cube from his jacket pocket with his thumb and forefinger and threw it into the air before catching it in his mouth. "Now, I shall not repeat myself again. This session is dismissed. Return to your dorms."

Seeing no other good excuse to argue, the five boys reluctantly trudged away to the main building, leaving Lawliet alone in the now-emptied clearing. He crouched against one of the trees and bit his thumbnail absent-mindedly, glancing up at the dappled spring leaves. "You've presented me with quite a challenge, cadets," he muttered. "You really are rather **untameable**."

**Author's Note: Wheee first chapter! Sorry if it's a bit rambly and patchy – I'm prone to writing tiny chapters so I'm trying to write longer ones for this story. Reviews would be greatly appreciated, but more importantly enjoy reading. See you next chapter! ^_^**


	3. Chapter II - Showing Cracks

The squad's dormitory remained silent, apart from the soft _thud, thud _of Near's socked feet as he limped across the room. Feeling that staying with the nurse was both boring and unnecessary, he had decided to return to the dorms for some peace and quiet before everyone else eventually came back. According to his calculations, it would take at least two minutes, if not more, for the Corporal to grab the remaining boys' attention for long enough to successfully dismiss them. He'd heard Lawliet first try to call the session to an end just as he had been leaving, so his theories were more than likely to be correct.

Fight training had been a stupid idea. It wasn't 'team-building' or any of that crap; they were meant to be learning how to fight _alongside _one another, not _with _one another in some perilous free-for-all that the activity had turned out to be. Near disliked the way this place was run and how the lessons were taught, and he especially disliked those who he was made to train with. He knew a few of them from before he'd started in the Training Corps, but that didn't mean he liked them. Not in the slightest.

The albino eased himself down onto his bunk and pulled out a thin cardboard box from under it. Inside was a plain white jigsaw puzzle, which he laid out the frame for and started piecing together. It was one of the few possessions he'd ever truly owned, and he treasured it dearly. He had always loved puzzles, especially ones with a challenge such as one with no image whatsoever – it left him puzzling through the complex geometry, which he found great enjoyment in doing.

As it turned out, Near's earlier predictions turned out to be right, and precisely three minutes and seventeen seconds from his own arrival, Mello stormed in with Matt striding behind, the blonde cursing and uttering as he went. "Stupid bloody Corporal... He should have known we were going to act in that way... Does he not have any freakin' brain cells at all?" He stopped mid-rant as he noticed Near, and a sly, angry snarl curved its way onto his features. "Near..." he growled.

"Mello," Near replied, his voice calm and monotonous as his eyes remained fixed on the puzzle he was continuing to solve.

"Looks like the Corporal's got a favourite. Dismissing the session as soon as you got hurt. Because you're little Near. You're the better one. "Mello's voice dripped with a bitter sarcasm.

"Heichou decided to disband the session because almost half of us have been injured," Near replied, his tone unchanging. "Please do not use your past aggressions as fuel for irrational conclusions."

"You patronising little-" The blonde lost his temper and suddenly lunged at the albino, but before he could cause any harm Matt firmly grabbed his arms to hold him back.

"Mels, don't," the redhead said with a stern tone. "You're never going to beat him if you're thrown out for causing serious injury, are you?"

Mello sighed in defeat and stopped his struggles, calming down enough for Matt to release his grip on his arms. "Fine," he replied, looking Near dead in the eye and adding, "But one day, I _will _defeat you." He then abruptly turned and walked to his corner of the dorm and started rummaging through his boxes in search of a fresh bar of chocolate to halt his cravings.

Meanwhile, Lawliet was still in the clearing, nibbling away at the slowly diminishing stock of sugar cubes in his two jacket pockets, thinking. He was desperately trying to somehow work out a strategy to gain control over his squad, but it was difficult. Each member had his or her own specific traits that meant finding a way to solve everyone's problems was virtually impossible, even for an experienced leader such as himself. Yes, it would be a challenge, but Lawliet enjoyed that. He was the Corporal who accepted anything assigned to him, and he was not about to let his reputation slip.

However, he was soon interrupted by a sudden and sickening sound.

_**CRASH.**_


End file.
